Before Jaxon could answer, Birdie cut in.
“Nothing happened here, but a simple accident. I was?—”
“Birdie!” Tully came running up. Her face was flushed and her eyes concerned as she crouched in front of her grandmother and took her hands. “Are you okay? Jimmy Lucas came running into the sheriff’s office hollering about you getting punched.” Those big brown eyes pinned Jaxon with an accusing look just like her daddy. “You hit my granny?”
Birdie snorted. “Of course, Jaxon didn’t hit me. Jimmy Lucas needs to get his eyes checked. And so do I. I walked smack dab into the bank door without even seeing it. It was no one’s fault but my own. And I’m fine. Just fine.” She stood. “Now if y’all will stop circling me like a flock of buzzards around a dead corpse, I need to get to the seed and feed.”
Jaxon should have let it go, but he knew the old woman was more injured than she was letting on. “That’s not true.” Birdie sent him a warning look, but he ignored it and turned to her son. “I flung the door open too quickly on my way out of the bank and hit Ms. Lowell. Not purposely, but still it was my fault. And I think you should take her to the county hospital and have her head looked at.”
Birdie rolled her eyes. “If anyone needs their head looked at, Jaxon Hennessy, it’s you. You couldn’t just leave well enough alone, could ya?”
“No, ma’am. I couldn’t.”
She smiled. “Good for you. I always knew you had a valiant heart.” She looked at the sheriff. “Now stop looking all huffy and protective, Del. Like he said it was an accident.” She hooked an arm through his. “While I’m not going to any hospital, I will let you buy me a cherry Dr Pepper and an ice pack at the mercantile.” She hesitated. “And maybe call Laura to tell her about my accident.”
That seemed to get Sheriff Gentry’s attention off Jaxon. “Laurie should know.”
Birdie nodded. “And what better person to tell her than her husband.” She pulled him down the street.
Which left Jaxon with a brown-eyed girl who thought he was the type of man to punch an old woman.
CHAPTER TEN
Tully hadn’t seen Jaxon since their late night dance.
He wore a western shirt today, the long sleeves cuffed high on his tattooed forearms. The entire time he’d been telling his side of the story, she couldn’t keep her gaze from wandering over the soft cotton and thinking about what lies beneath.
Miles of hard muscle and hot skin she’d rested against. Touched.
She would never be able to look at Jaxon again without thinking of that night and how it had felt to be waltzed around a sawdust floor in his arms. How secure she’d felt . . . how graceful. But it had all been a lie—an illusion conjured up by the spell Honky Tonk Heaven had cast.
She would never be graceful and Jaxon was as far from secure as a man could get. He’d run off and deserted his family without a backward glance and spent the following years working on whatever offshore oilrig that would hire him. He had no home. No plans for the future. And no desire to get them.
He certainly wasn’t going to stay in Promise Springs.
He was here for one reason and one reason only.
Money.
What happened the other night was only him toying with her.
Say it and I’ll give you what you want.
What you want. You being the keyword. He hadn’t wanted to kiss her. He’d just wanted to prove his theory. That all good girls wanted bad boys. That Tully wanted him.
That Sheriff Gentry’s daughter wanted him.
She knew Jaxon had to hate her father. The best way to get back at her daddy would be by messing with his daughter. That was the only reason Jaxon was giving her any kind of attention. He could have any woman in town. Why would he choose the clumsy deputy unless he had other motivation?
Getting back at the man who had put him in jail was a good motivation.
But she refused to be part of Jaxon Hennessy’s revenge. Just like she refused to acknowledge the way those gold eyes made her body feel like a dropped Popsicle on summer pavement.
As soon as her grandma and daddy disappeared down the street, she stood, keeping her gaze away from the broad shoulders and hard chest that refused to stay out of her dreams.
“An accident?”
He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You caught me, Deputy Gentry. I’ve been hiding out in the bank waiting for your grandma to walk by so I could hit her with a door.” He held out his hands, wrists pressed together. “Go ahead and cuff me and take me in. It won’t be the first time I’ve been falsely arrested by a Gentry.”
